I'll Rip My Heart in Two
by Monisse
Summary: The line was as solid and real as both of them but sometimes the veil between their worlds seemed so faint that he often struggled not to reach forward and touch her delicate features with his fingers. It was getting harder to resist temptation.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **I'll rip my heart in two  
**Pairing: **Booth/OC but definetly Booth/Brennan in the end.  
**Rating: **T  
**Disclaimer:** This story was inspired in a small drabble writen by Seeleybaby. At the time I thought that that short amount of words had a potential for so much more, so she gave me a thumbs up to go on and make it a full story. The first chapter has been lurking in my computer for a while and notes for the next chapters are still writen in my Analytic Chemistry notebook, it might take a while to be fully complete.  
So, the dialogue and idea is entirely property of Seeleybaby, all the other descriptions are mine.

Please leave a review, I would be happy and I think Seels would be too, just to see her idea apreciated.

_This heart ain't made of gold,  
It has no self control.  
Your love will get me through,  
I'll give myself to you.  
I'll rip my heart in two._

* * *

In an early Sunday morning the man found himself seating in the spot that seemed to be reserved just for him, in that small cornered Diner he used to go. He wasn't alone at the table but the silence that reigned in between the two seemed like a barrier, isolating both on their respective sides, leaving them alone and closed to one another.

He looked outside into the rushing movement of the morning. People came and went in blind hurry, crossed the streets, bumped into each other in a feverish urgency of steps.

His brown eyes moved along the movement outside and relinquished in the human life bursting into action early in the morning, so in contrast to the calm he felt inside, in their table by the wide window.

From the corner of his eyes he saw her, so beautiful and relaxed in the morning. She wore a soft blue blouse and jeans, something so simple for the woman she was, a forensic anthropologist who dedicated her life to the others in a way no one else did, a rich woman who wrote best selling novels, and yet dressed so much like herself, so simply her.

She, across from him, moved her fork along the plate filled with salad and the other greeneries she liked. He had been the one that ordered it, even before she had arrived. And when she sat in front of him, her eyes sparkled at the sight of the plate in front of her; she had smiled then and rewarded him with a silent '_thank you_'.

_How well do I know her?_ He wondered to himself.

Until then he had thought he knew her like a partner, a good friend even, but when that knowledge crossed the boundaries imposed by him, and made him aware of the fact that he knew her favorite food in Sunday mornings, her favorite color, blue of course, like the blouse she was wearing, which by the way, was her favorite. He also knew her perfume only by the scent, of course it took him hours in the cosmetic shop to actually identify from what bottle the scent of Temperance Brennan came, but he now knew without a doubt. And so many, many things, dolphins, daffodils and daisies… she was made of all of that.

His eyes studied her intense stare at the plate, she was still quietly eating away, obviously comfortable in their silence. The fact that he couldn't avert his eyes from her scared him deeply. The woman in front of him held all the power to undo him in the palm of her delicate hands and yet was oblivious to that strength.

Feeling his eyes on her she immediately lifted her head and stared directly to him. He had that look in his eyes again. In these times, when his eyes were fixed on the blue of hers and they were as dark as melted chocolate, he seemed unreadable, even for her.

Their eyes, locked in a silent embrace, did not avert from one another even with all the commotion around them. When they stood like that, the world just stopped for a fraction of a second, until his lips curved into a boyish grin and her own lips followed it, blindly, into a bright smile of her own.

A ringtone floated in the air and cut through their connected gazes. The moment was lost between them as she returned her eyes to the plate that seemed uninteresting comparing to his attention. He finally pushed his cell phone from the pocket in his pants.

"Booth." He spoke into the phone in his characteristic manner.

After a while he dropped his fork and drove his attention to the conversation in the phone.

The curious nature of her made her eyes shift in his direction. She saw the way his eyes sparkled at the recognition of the person in the other side of the line, someone who was still incognito to her. A hint of jealousy pierced her heat at the sight of his broad smile and the enthusiastic conversation he was having. For sure he knew the person in the phone well and was comfortable demonstrating that.

_Does he look that happy when he talks to me on the phone?_

But her mind, the always attentive ruler of reason recognized the feeling of envy as one of the most illogical and unreasonable sentiments towards him that she could muster.

When he turned off the phone, he couldn't help but smile widely. A warm feeling rose in his chest and he found it difficult to control. He turned towards his partner, who stared at him intently.

"Who was it?" She asked innocently and dropped her eyes back to her food. She didn't want to intrude in his personal life; after all she was just his partner.

'_Just…_' her mind formed.

"No one important…" His eyes wandered around, never able to settle in her face. He struggled with his inner daemons and pondered if he should tell her or not. Probably, not telling was the best way out, but he hated being dishonest.

Her lips turned into a sarcastic sad smile that had been covered by the long curtain of her hair.

'_No one ever makes you smile like that…_' Her uncontrolled mind whispered in silence to her.

He caught the sad expression in her face for not being part of his life. The guilt rose in his veins and settled in his stomach like a hard punch. For a moment he stared at her and waited for her next reaction.

"What, Booth?" Her face was a mask of impartiality when she raised her eyes to face him. "Do I have something on my face?"

That infamous line between them was as solid and real as both of them and sometimes the veil between their worlds seemed so faint that he often struggled with himself not to reach forward and touch her delicate features with his rough fingers.

Sometimes it was so hard to resist the temptation.

His hand moved and his fingers brushed over her face to clean a nonexistent drop of sauce in her lips. He let his thumb linger in the spot more than necessary and felt the softness of her rosy lips underneath his callused finger. Those stolen touches were the only tastes of heaven he let himself have, or else, the force of his wanting would destroy both of them.

"Ready to go?" He asked softly as his hand made the way back to his side.

"Yes." She nodded her head and rose from her seat. "I'll see you tomorrow at work?"

His breath caught in his throat and he had to cough to regain the composure after her question.

"Uh, maybe. I have an important meeting tomorrow." He lied with all his teeth and an immensity of courage he had never felt before and felt his heartbeat accelerate. A faded layer of sweat covered his palms.

Of course she didn't notice, because she was Temperance Brennan and more times than often her social skills wouldn't distinguish between a truth and a lie. And the fact that she trusted the man in front of her with blind faith did not help.

She reached for her purse and took some bills to pay for their breakfast, throwing them to the table she noticed, in the back of her mind, that for the first time he did not complain about her paying for it.

"You leave the tip?" She asked for his attention that had been lost in the vision outside the window.

"Sure." He said absently and reached for his walled for a few bills.

She turned her back to him and walked to the door.

He followed her outside and with a quick goodbye both parted to different ways.

She stood in the corner; her eyes followed his hurried movements to his car. Turning away from him, she started to walk back to her own car, lost in confused thoughts about her partner's distant behavior.

As he drove away from his partner the previous feeling of guilt was replaced by the uncertainty of what expected him. His heart pounded in haste as he accelerated the car. He wondered if he had made the right decision, but then again, the woman had made an effort to come from so far just to see him, the least he could to was to welcome her.

He saw her in the distance as he pulled the car into his road and approached the driveway. She stood in the front steps of his house, had been waiting for him and now smiled broadly.  
Stepping out of the car, he walked, confident once again, in her direction and smiled back to her.

"Pritch."


	2. Chapter 2

- I Finally decided to go forward with this story, because now I have time to write (since I'm finally on vacation!) and I had some inspiration to finish this.  
- I decided to keep this story minimalist, so there will be only one more chapter to it.  
- Thank you so much for the feedback unil now, and I hope you enjoy this new chapter.

* * *

The key slipped easily into the lock, as it had countless times before, to the entrance of his house. As his right hand traveled to turn the door knob and open the door, his other one instinctively settled in the back of the woman which stood beside him. The muscles in her back immediately stiffened when his hand moved and settled farther down, gently cradling the curve of her spine and urging her to move forward into the open door. In the back of his mind, an absent feeling of misplaced actions played silently.

Brown eyes met another set of the same color and a nervous smile appeared in his lips but the warm look in his eyes was enough to make her muscles relax, once more, under his palm.

"Let's go inside." He suggested uncharacteristically shy, averting his eyes from hers and pushing the door open.

"Yes." She simply said, nodding her reply towards him and offering a sympathetic look.

Her mere physical presence turned real at his doorstep, from what was once a simple phone call alerting him for her unexpected arrival, made him vaguely regret the lie he told to his partner, but being rewarded with a smile from the beautiful woman beside him brought a new wave of courage through his veins which almost immediately settled his regrets aside and drove his steps forward and after the heels of the woman stepping inside his apartment.

She walked inside and instantly a soft clicking came from the hardwood floors which made him turn his head downwards and towards the noise.

His eyes came upon her feet adorned with fine black high heels. A nervous metaphorical knot formed in his throat and his mouth seemed suddenly dry as his eyes traveled the expansive path of her bare legs. With a strong effort, he disconnected his gaze from her exposed skin and fixed it in some other part of her figure where she wouldn't think of him as a pervert.

"Please, make yourself comfortable." He finally found the polite words to address her after coughing slightly to clear his voice from the persistent knot ever-growing in his chest and assaulting his reason.

She only smiled and returned her eyes to the small living room. Her face held an amused look and he saw a brief turn of her lips. Turning her head, she examined every corner of the room with sharp eyes, without moving from her standing position.

He took the time to appreciate her figure, and noticed how feminine she presented herself today. In their previous encounters, very few in his opinion, a few months ago back in England, she used to be dressed in a different style, although not as feminine as his partner, but comfortable enough for a female detective without losing her status as an attractive woman. He had also noticed, back then, her simple beauty behind long dark curly locks and affable smiles.

Now, standing in the middle of his living room, was the same woman, yet very different, carefully removing her coat to reveal her tall figure dressed in a knee high black skirt and tight white blouse.

His eyes, unable to stay obedient to his thoughts of morality and self restrain, wandered the length of her figure and the curves that were enhanced by the seductive outfit.

There was something in this woman that made his senses alert, something in her unusual manners, her fine accent and unquestionable dark beauty. It wasn't necessarily bad, when his heart started to pound rapidly in his chest, his breathe became labored and his palms begun to sweat, nonetheless it frightened him, the strength of these physically intense new emotions which were barely a friendly flirt all those months ago.

The feelings he experienced now, were identical to the ones he used to have a long time ago, during his adolescence, only those were ruled by uncontrolled hormones and with that thought, he shook his head, and returned to the man he grew up to be, leaving no room for childish emotions.

Once more, sensing her brown eyes burning in his direction, he felt that his own were occupied with the exposed white skin of her legs and arms, running along all the way until, finally, their gazes intertwined in a sinful fashion.

Her vision departed from his and toured, again, along the few furniture that held some books, trophies and frames with pictures of family and friends. In one of them her eyes stopped and the once turned up lips moved to a single line in her face.

He noticed her abrupt change in humor towards that particular picture of a smiling woman, so in contrast with the one currently in the living room. That frame had a moment frozen in time not long ago, where his partner, with bright blue eyes, smiled up at him, together in her office.

As sudden as the somber mood came over her features it went away as her eyes traveled back to him, who stood a few feet from her, slightly leaning in the kitchen's door frame, his hands in the jeans' pockets trying to suggest an air of relaxation to their meeting, despite the inner anxiety at her presence.

"Lovely home. Very…" She waved one hand in front of her in an attempt to search for a correct adjective to qualify his place. "Masculine." She finally added with a kind smile.

He waved his head sideways trying to hide the smile that came to his lips more persistently at every passing moment in the presence of that woman.

"Yes, being single and living alone is a fine art." He snorted, lightly unaware of the weight of his own words.

Then again her polite smile and silence fell between them.

"Have a seat." He indicated towards the sofa. "Do you want to drink something?" The question was so ordinary and banal to him that it left his lips without much thought behind it, the polite gesture was evident, but when he turned towards his fridge without waiting for her answer he found himself picking two bottles of beer.

He walked to the couch, where she sat, seeming rather comfortable, her back against the cushions and her legs neatly folded down to the side.

"Here." He extended the beer to her and settles himself on the couch beside her.

"I'm afraid I'll have to decline the offer. I don't drink that kind of beer, agent Booth." She replied softly, in her polished accent, waving a hand negatively towards the drink.

Confusion laced his senses as he looked from the object in his hand to the woman in front of him. He tried to rationalize his Freudian act, but failed miserably at it. What have he been thinking when he grabbed a second beer? Specially, being that specific Moroccan beverage, which was his partner's favorite and he kept a pack of it in his fridge for some eventuality, like a late night of paperwork at his apartment.

Embarrassment rose to his cheeks in a light shade of red, and he hurried to disguise the fact with the largest smile he could muster.

After placing the neglected beer in the coffee table he leaned backwards against the sofa to enjoy his own.

"Call me Booth." He added in her direction while taking a drink from the bottle.

A sad smile covered his lips and shadowed his brown eyes. He thought back on her, his partner. What would she be doing now? Now when he was taking his time apart from her, excused by a lie gently disguised as an excuse to abandon her and that long, almost sad, stare she threw at him.

"Won't you ask what the purpose of my visit is?" Her voice waved towards him, coming like waves in a long distance and breaking at the shore of his inner thoughts.

"I was politely expecting you to be the one to tell me."

"Always a gentleman, I see." Her gentle laughter came softly to his ears. "I came here for a courteous visit." He raised a questionable eyebrow in her direction.

"What?" She asked, half laughing, half serious. "Can't a woman visit an acquaintance in a foreign country?" The mocking tone spilled in her words made him laugh enthusiastically.

"Really?" He slowly asked in disbelief. He truly wanted to believe, that the beautiful woman, dressed in her finest clothes, traveled over the Atlantic just to visit him.

"That, and an overseas meeting with law enforcements. The tedious kinds."

They both laughed at their own knowledge of the fact. She was of the same kind as him. An agent of the law herself, protector of justice and replacer of truth. Just like him. Maybe that was what attracted him, the notion that she understood his job more deeply than anyone else around him. Her ability to read other people's emotions was as good as his and that sort of charm didn't pass unnoticed by him.

He leaned towards her, while their private laughter still erupted graciously from her lips, pulled by the inevitable force of their strong connection. All the while, she watched him approach, with a faint glint in his eyes and a boyish smile playing graciously in his lips.

His heart beat fast in his chest for the woman who seemed delighted to respond to his teasing.

He lifted his hand and made his fingers trace a soft pattern in her cheek and as soon as he did so, was rewarded with a sharp intake of breath which rapidly developed into a sigh and furthermore into a light moan as his own warm breath caressed her lips.

Closer and closer, they became, not leaving room between them for regrets or second thoughts. This was a woman who would understand him fully, who perhaps would love him and respect his work, and fully understand his soul.

"Booth." She whispered, but the word didn't hold as much meaning and softness as when said by another person, it felt different to his ears, out of context.

As his lips approached hers tenderly and almost felt their softness below his own, an image assaulted his mind.

Blue eyes gazed in his direction and burned into his soul. Those eyes he knew too well, they were windows to the soul of the woman to whom they belonged, and yet they looked into his own soul and read his emotions like an open book, even though she denied herself that capacity.

The realization of his mistake came almost a second too late and he pulled himself up from the sofa, as if stricken by lightning, and away from the temptation into which he almost fell. He inhaled hard and felt the air expand his lungs and clean the intoxicating perfume of the woman now composing herself and standing up.

No, his mind screamed. It was not those eyes he wanted to see for the rest of his life. The color scheme he desired was far clearer and meaningful to his senses than the ones staring back at him swimming in a blend of amusement and hurt before him.

"I'm sorry… I can't do this." He breathed out while running a hand over his face.

"There is no need to apologize, Booth. I know when I'm not the one in a man's mind." She said with a hint of a smile in her face, despite the fact that the man in front of her just denied himself to her.

_Another woman in __my mind?_ No, it couldn't be possible, and yet it could because once more, his brain made an intuitive leap and created an image of soft auburn curls.

"I'm…" He started another apology but his sentence was cut in half by a soft knock on the door.

He walked towards the door and without a second thought turned the knob and opened it ajar, revealing smiling blue eyes on the other side.

She smiled brightly once she saw him, the one he missed so much during the day, and the simple fact of her presence lifted an unnoticed guilt from his shoulders. He smiled back, broadly and time passed by without an exchange of words.

Slowly, almost imperceptibly, her eyes moved to the space over his shoulder and what was once a smile dropped down into a frown and then a confused stare back at him. He could sense the unspoken question floating in her eyes.

His own eyes widened and what he feared the most happened.

She looked between him and the other woman repeatedly until her eyes settled finally on him with the gathered data turning into the answer she hadn't spoke. A blue gaze, cold as ice now, bore into his worried face.  
In a sudden movement her body simply turned upon her heels.

"Bones!" He called after her, but to no use, she was already crossing the street to her car, in a steady stride.

She climbed in and drove away without looking back once or acknowledge him running behind the car. He was left behind, forgotten in the middle of the street, watching his partner drive away from him with a wrong fact in her mind.

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More soon! Don't forget to review!


	3. Chapter 3

I don't know why but this chapter got deleted by mistake, so I'm uploading it once again and took the opportunity to correct some mistakes in it. Enjoy!

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She sat in a barstool alone and contemplated the bottom of her empty coffee cup. Her eyes rested in the polished surface of the cup's bottom, which reflected a distorted image of her face. She blinked once, twice, three times, but still the image that stared back at her was one of a woman who had seen better days. A sigh escaped her lips as she called the waitress for another refill.

Her blue eyes kept staring at the dark liquid that now filled her cup almost to the top. She took a rapid swig at the drink and grimaced as the hot and bitter liquid slid down her throat. That specific beverage wasn't her usual, she didn't even appreciated a coffee as strong as the one she felt in need.

Every morning, for the past couple of days, she would come to that Diner, in the early hours of the morning, to have breakfast alone, and even though the option of drink seemed quite unusual in the beginning, it slowly became a habit.

She had ordered black coffee. Her partner's favorite. She didn't know what compelled her to that action, and yet, didn't bother to place much thought behind something as simple as a beverage. The fact that it made her mornings more peaceful and less lonely shadowed the need she had for his company. For now, the coffee would do just fine to her senses.

He had called, of course he had. It might have been the first thing he did after she left so abruptly from his house, but she ignored him then and kept doing so for the next days. He called again, and she just dismissed him with promises of returning his calls back whenever she wasn't occupied with Limbo cases, student's reports or articles.

She should have known better, that her simple dismissals disguised as work wouldn't have any effect on him. He knocked at her door several times a day, and either she wouldn't answer or offer an excuse to leave.

He should have read between the lines, she didn't want to talk to him. Even now, after several days without his constant company, the hurt overlapped the possible feelings caused by his absence.

She had been reduced to that, drinking his coffee alone.

From the other side of the almost empty Diner, the door bell rang and alerted the few people inside for another presence in the room.

She heard, from a distance, the clicking of heels in the marble floor, but her mind didn't further register the noise until it stopped and she felt the presence of someone right beside her. Her face turned abruptly to the side and her eyes crashed upon a mass of long dark hair and brown eyes.

"What are you doing here?" She spat aggressively, even though it was not her intention to be rude.

"Agent Booth told me where I could find you." The other woman said, calmly looking straight at the blue eyes of the woman beside her. "May I have a seat?"

"Be my guest, but I don't really see the need for it." She then took the cup and cradled it tenderly between her hands as if it was a cherished object.

The brown eyed woman seemed taken aback by the sudden rush of words that crossed the other woman's mouth but took a seat beside her nonetheless. "I wanted to talk to you about Booth."

The coffee cup hit the balcony with more force than she intended and dark droplets jumped free from it and stained the marble surface. She looked at the small drops of brown and couldn't restrain her mind from connecting that with some other dark brown shade of eyes, so akin in color. It was all that it took, to remind her why she had been taking breakfast alone for the past days and boil the un-rational anger inside of her.

"We have nothing to discuss, Agent Pritchard." She simply stated and tried hard to maintain her voice as calm as she could. "We are both adult women that don't need to explain their actions to one another. So, if what you are seeking is my approval to be with Booth, you don't need to ask, he may be my partner, but our relationship ends there. You are free to do as you see fit."

Blue eyes returned to the coffee cup expecting that the dismissal had been correctly interpreted by the other woman. However, the dark haired one still sat motionless beside her with no intention to leave.

"Please Dr. Brennan, just wait a moment and let me explain something to you."

There was a plea in the agent's voice that, even to her, the one with low social skills, couldn't be ignored.

Her gaze turned towards the female agent as she calmly spoke again. "As I said, I don't see any need for it, but if you want to humor me, please carry on." A hit of turned lips appeared in her face, a pale disguise to the sarcastic shadow in her icy blue eyes.

"First, I'm going to mark some few common grounds in our conversation. We strongly care about the same man and there's no need to deny it, even if your rational, logical brain suggest you otherwise, the truth is that no one would have had that strong of a reaction, If it weren't for that obvious reason."

A snort came out from the lips of the blue eyed woman. She waved her head disapprovingly.

"Again, Booth and I are-" She began, only to be interrupted by the harsh words of the other woman.

"Hush now Doctor, let me continue." The agent watched how the disbelief in the doctor's face turned into what resembled mild surprise. "Secondly, even if you did see us together in his flat, you have no reason whatsoever to fear our reunion. I went to see Special Agent Seeley Booth just for business purposes."

Blue eyes stared at her incredulously. What she had seen that day could have been interpreted in an immensity of ways, she recognized that, but once she arrived home, the image of a smiling partner couldn't be separated from the one of the woman behind him. She tried to rationally explain it, turned the event over and over again in her mind during the night, when sleep wasn't a good company. Her brain offered explanations, ones were simple, 'just friends', others were intricate and often resulted in the burst of wild emotions she had no control over.

Together, one by one, the pieces of the event placed themselves together in a precise puzzle. He had received a call early in that day and seemed excited about the fact, only he had dismissed the offending call in the middle of their lunch and headed off, towards his house, without much of a turn of his eyes towards her. He had even lied to her, she realized some time later.

She might not be good at reading people, but he had taught her well over the past few years of their partnership. She found herself interpreting his body language and subtle words as good as she did with bones.

"Yes, it may have led to something completely different, but Booth was very pungent in his attitude and actions towards that particular situation. As a woman, I felt hurt from that reaction, but comprehension struck me when I saw his face as he laid eyes upon your frame." She said in a soft sincere tone and saw the expression of the doctor change once more.

This time, her once glacial eyes slowly changed in color into the vivid hue of ocean blue. It seemed that her eyes changed with her moods, because her face no longer held a stern defensive look but a simple, almost childlike, curious expression.

"What are you trying to say, Agent Pritchard? That Seeley Booth denied a woman of your caliber just like that?" Her eyes widened furthermore in wonder. Would she believe that her own partner, the one cocky, arrogant, egocentrically driven partner, denied a woman?

She was speechless for a while and the growing noises of cutlery in the background rapidly filled the silence between the two women who now watched each other in a mist of challenge and acceptance. A mere cordial declaration of peace.

The female was not any woman, it was the one to whom he had expressed a found interest when they were in England for a short period of time. At the time she had encouraged him, knowing well that he would never make the first step, as neither would the female agent, and in a short time they would be an ocean apart. She suspected they would have maintained their contact, professionals after all, but never would imagine she would be seeing her again, inside his house, of all the places.

The agent spoke again, this time softer than before, and the words came out elegant under her foreign accent.

"In part that's what I'm trying to say, but also, that there is something deeply strong in Booth's heart, something that cannot be substituted. It is rooted there and he cherishes it to the upmost devotion. Something both you and I know."

She smiled then and waited for the doctor to take her turn in the conversation.

"I don't know what you mean, but if I can grasp just a fragment of what you are trying to say to me, Booth cares for someone strongly, am I right?"

A physically powerful feeling overcame her and she felt her hands tremble when they grasped for the cup again. It was still warm but it didn't feel comfortable anymore. The feeling was almost similar to the one she felt when she had knocked at the front door of his home, expecting to find him alone, just to be surprised with the contrary.

"Not just any someone." The agent smiled kindly, already knowing that she was not far from her goal to replace the truth. "He cares about one particular person which he sees everyday and gives his full and complete trust to, that person…" She hesitated. "I'm positive that you know who she is." She added, to her own personal pleasure, just to see what would be the other woman's reaction.

"I'm afraid I do not know who she might be. If Booth was interested in someone he would have told me, for sure." Or maybe not, her brain supplied and turned directions once more. It took a free will and connected words and events in her mind that, apart, seemed meaningless. "The only one who's constantly with him is m-"

She suddenly stopped and all the noise around seemed to engulf her mind again. It was a fact that they had grown accustomed to each other, therefore spending more and more time together.

Her head throbbed with an emerging migraine and the acceleration of her heartbeat. The mistake was painfully bare to her now; she had let her rational mind behave like never before. She had reacted abruptly to a situation, gathered the data and fabricated a speculation without bothering to compare her resolution with the truth that only the parties' involved could provide.

An image erupted in her in her mind. A polychromatic image of her partner running after her car in the distance, his face worried his semblance tired and heavy.

Now, not only she felt ashamed that she had, once more, jumped into conclusions when her partner was concerned, but felt scared when called into a reality that she feared she couldn't face just yet.

"Well, Doctor Brennan," The agent got up from her stool and prepared to leave. "Think about it. Trust me; you will not regret _the_ right decision." The woman left then, without expecting an answer from the stunned woman she left behind.

Once more she was alone in her stool. Her breathing was erratic and her ribcage started to hurt due to the harsh movements, trying to bring more air into her needing lungs. One of her hands paused over her heart and felt if beat strongly.

_I'm the one in his heart?_ She asked herself silently as a tremor overcame her body.

The aroma of strong coffee filled her nostrils, and that somewhat soothed her. The need to taste it captured her will and she took another drink. She closed her eyes and enjoyed his close proximity, only physically present in one of the scents associated with him. Maybe that was the reason she requested it, day after day: the need for his comfort.

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The last chapter will be up soon enough. Hope you liked this one and remember to leave a review, I would appreciate!


	4. Chapter 4

I'm really sorry for the amount of time that it took for this story to be finished. This is probably the story that took me the most to write, I suffered from large periods of writer's block and indecision. But nothing is too bad in this story! While the block was on for this story, it triggered inspiration to two other stories, _Sexual Selection_ and _Everytime You Feel Alone.  
_  
I hope everyone enjoyed this last chapter and don't forget to review!

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The traffic light burned red in her face as she patiently waited for it to change. Her fingers drummed absently in the steering wheel as a soft tune came from the radio. It surrounded her body in a false sense of peace when inside, anxiety rose at each passing second. After what seemed to be a long while, a green hue bathed the interior of the car and she immediately stepped on the pedal and drove the car among the streets of downtown and the rushing hour traffic that seemed to grow as she moved forward, much to her annoyance.  
Her hands and feet seemed on autopilot as the car navigated on well known streets, and made its way towards the destination. She parked the car carelessly in the side walk, quickly got out and locked it.

She walked the small stone path that led to the front door of the building and caught up with someone who was opening the door to step outside. The old man opened the door for her to enter and smiled simply. She recognized the elder from her previous visits and without words she smiled in gratitude while walking inside. Her steps took her to the second floor and face to face with a wooden door which she knew by instinct without looking at the apartment number. She breathed deeply and felt the air expand her lungs, calming her down. A right hand closed into a relaxed fist and softly knocked on the door.

A few minutes passed by with her standing perfectly still facing the motionless door. The smile she previously had in her features, slowly turned into a frown as time dragged itself longer than she expected for him to open the door. Another knock sounded in the empty floor, except for her presence, as she brushed her knuckles, yet again, against the wooden surface, this time a little more forcefully.

There was no response from the other side of the door and her frown deepened. Her eyes darted downwards to the space beside his front mat. To her surprise there was only an empty space where she was certain she would see a recognizable object. She laughed to herself and nodded kindly at the man's gesture under her disguised advice. He had finally taken out that fake rock that seemed so out of place in a small corridor of closed doors.  
The only place she was certain to find a key to his apartment was now gone and she sighed in defeat.

She briefly wondered where he could be at that time of the night, they hadn't had a case in weeks and she was certain he didn't work in a Saturday night. Maybe he was out to satisfy his unassailable hunger for snacks in the middle of the night, she told herself. Yet, she knew that she should have eaten something before leaving her apartment so abruptly like she did, or else she wouldn't be standing at his door with her stomach now protesting furiously at her reckless behavior.

Nevertheless, she waited by his door and eventually, after a while standing up patiently waiting, she let her weight fall to the floor and settled herself as comfortable as she could in his front door mat.

As she sat there with her back against the door and waited, time passed and her mind wandered far away while her eyes were still vaguely fixed on a dirty spot on the floor.

'_He cares about one particular person which he sees everyday and gives his full and complete trust._'

Each single time those words came to her, confusion seemed to grow exponentially and the sincerity in them crashed over her every time she relived the previous conversation, over and over again in her mind.

She remembered that after those words had left the lips of the woman that had been keeping her company at breakfast, she had felt her gravity center shift, and even though she was comfortably seated at a stool, everything else seemed to be spinning around and her peripheral vision reduced, creating a wave of nausea to invade her body and threaten to throw her off balance.

There was a sensorial overload in her senses that engulfed her ability to reason and even to breathe. Smells of coffee and fresh baked pie mingled with the sounds of voices that grew in the morning air. The air seemed to leave her lungs in raged blocks of air and it felt that there wasn't enough around for her to take in.

She ran outside, as fast as her legs and the increasing crowd inside the Dinner allowed and, immediately, a fresh brush of wind caressed her heated cheeks. Stopping in the middle of the sidewalk, she breathed deeply, inhaling long gusts of air, and closed her eyes as her hands came up to rest in her face. After a while she stopped hyperventilating and, although her legs seemed to tremble as she walked a few paces forward, she reached her car easily and took off in the direction of her apartment.

There she found the solitude and peace she sought for, away from the crowds and the smells that reminded her of him, despite the taste of black coffee that still lingered in her tongue. She ran to the bathroom and splashed a handful of water over her face and for a moment, indulged in the feeling of the cool liquid against her skin. When her eyes opened once more, a blue set came in contact with their twins over the polished surface of the mirror.

Many questions ran through her mind in that moment, the majority didn't have answer or she simply feared to know the truth for them. For as long as she could remember, she had always been in control of herself, of her body and her emotions. She praised herself for that. Being a headstrong and independent woman took a lot of effort and she found her strong wall of knowledge and logical bricks be torn apart by the simple confrontation with feelings. She feared them, not because she didn't have them, but because she was afraid of them, their length and consequences.

Science taught her several things along the years, one of them, and probably the most precious rule was not to judge before analyzing all evidences and, after specific observation, the answer could be formulated under the existing data. She usually didn't believe in anything before it was scientifically proven and published.  
It didn't matter what the foreign agent had told her, for as precious as that information might be, she needed to hear from him, she needed to hear the same words come from his lips, to see in his eyes if the truth laid there.

She would not run away, not from him, and that's what brought her to his door so late in the night.

Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the sound of heavy steps in the distance, rapidly climbing the stairs and approaching the floor where she was. She knew those paces all too well and they revived the uneasy feeling running in her veins.

She was not, by nature, a fearful person, but when he came to a halt in front of her, his already tall height accentuated by her perspective from below, she felt small and vulnerable under his gaze. He looked at her from above dressed in simple jeans and a shirt that cling to his body in a perfect fit. His eyes held a shadow which she could not define and the simple knowledge of not knowing his mood made her feel nervous and her heart start to beat at a higher rate than it normally would.

"Temperance," He finally said and his voice resonated in the empty hall. "I'm so glad to see you. I have a lot to explain. I don't want you to get a wrong impression of me and Pritch-"

"Don't bother." She cut him off a little too quickly than she had intended. "Pritch had the amiability of explaining everything to me."

"If that's the case then I'm deeply sorry, Bones." Again, his face shifted into worry.

There was a wrinkle between his eyes that she longed to soften with her fingertips, yet she sat out of his reach in the floor.

"I didn't want to put you in that situation." And then, there was shame passing over his dark brown eyes.

"I know, Booth." Her voice flew soft out of her lips in recognition of his constant changing humor.

Suddenly, his eyes changed in the dimly lit corridor, they brightened. She wasn't a gregarious person and had already admitted to herself that interpret other's emotions wasn't her forte. But, when it came to her partner, it all seemed different. Every smile, every frown and wrinkle in his face, she had come to know and categorize in a long list that came with his moods.

Now, displayed in his face, was one she knew quite well. It was the one look he would only use with her and she found herself expectant for the large smile that would certainly form in his lips in a while. It took less that she expected, because when she turned her lips upwards in what was the beginning of a sympathetic smile, it triggered a domino reaction in his features. His mouth ripped off in a large smile and his eyes became small and impossibly brighter, the expression wrinkles in his face accentuated in his cheerful face.

His hand stretched out, palm facing up in her direction. For a moment she hesitated, but the urge overtook her and she slipped her slender hand in his much larger and rough one. With an effortless push he brought her up to her own feet and crashing against his chest.

She trembled at the sudden touch and felt her reaction mirrored in him. They stared into each other's eyes; blue was caught firmly under brown as their breaths mingled in the narrow space between their bodies.

"I know what happened." She interrupted their continuous silent stare and took a step behind that caused her hand to fall from his. "I've come to realize that I had a childish reaction, I wasn't using my full thought process to rationalize what was being conveyed to me at that moment."

Her eyes lowered to the floor for a moment searching for courage that could not be found in the pavement. Nevertheless, she kept perfectly still, until feeling his eyes staring fixedly at her and she couldn't bear to ignore their unspoken plea.

"I just have one question for you." She calmly said when her eyes focused once more on his and saw surprise mixed with expectation.

"Yes?" He asked. She saw his Adam's apple constrict up and down at his sudden gulp. He was nervous and still appeared strong enough to accept her question, already knowing what would come from her lips. He could read her extremely well, even if she tried to hide herself from him most of the time.

"Why did you lie to me about whom you were going to meet?" There wasn't a smile in her face, instead, only a serious expression expecting nothing but the truth from her partner. Besides the unfortunate meeting with the British agent in his house, what had bothered her deeply, even though that she couldn't admit before, was that her own partner had lied to her. Even if she tried to neglect it, to rationalize an excuse for him, it still hurt. Maybe more than she gave it credit. He betrayed her and all she wanted to know was why.

She heard him sigh at the same time his shoulders fell in shame.

"I don't know Bones, maybe I was afraid that you would take it the wrong way or be offended." Another sigh escaped his lips but his eyes never averted from hers. She knew what he was trying to do, by never breaking their intense gaze he tried to convey the truth and, even though they reassured her, she still needed his explanation, as implausible as it could be. She only needed his version, for she knew that he would never lie to her intentionally, not with a good reason behind it.

"Truthfully... I think I was afraid that you would feel indifferent towards it." He finally admitted in a tender, almost imperceptible whisper.

It was then, after those words that she realized she had been holding her breath. The air was released from her lungs and on the way out loosened a small smile in her lips.

"Oh Booth," She said tenderly, figuratively caressing him with her now warm eyes. "You know that I, as your partner, can never feel indifferent to any topic related to you, it was an irrational fear the one you felt at that moment wasn't it?"

He only nodded at her, the ghost of shame still present in his eyes. This time it was her hand that came up to caress him. Her palm rested comfortably, as if it had always had, in his cheek. He leaned slightly into her touch, not wanting to take more than she was able to offer.

"Even if you did told me and even if I, at that time, had a bad reaction to it, you could rest assured that it wouldn't be anger or offense that I would have felt. We're partners, right?" She questioned and removed her hand from his face, the warmth spreading from it to the rest of her body seemed unbearable and appeared to interfere with her straight reasoning.

Brown eyes widened in sudden shock at the recall to their current relationship – partnership - and then faded into neutral orbs of sepia.

"I know that now, Bones." He simply nodded. "I guess I wasn't thinking clearly."

Another silent moment fell between them until she parted her lips to speak again. He curiously looked at her, not expecting her to be the one to break the silence first.

"Can I ask you another question?" There was naïve sincerity in her voice although he sensed the load that that question carried. Once he agreed there was no turning back, and maybe he didn't want to return. However, he chuckled at her curious facial expression.

"Since when you ask for permission to question me?" The sound of his laughter seemed melodic and rang in her ears. She had missed it.

She wanted to laugh with him too and, once more, share a smile with him like so many times before, but the importance of the situation prevented her from doing so.

"Do you have feelings for me, Booth?" The words couldn't have come faster across her mouth, and before she could have thought in a more sensible way to expose her question, it had already left her lips in the same fashion they always did.

His eyes widened in panic and his face morphed into complete alarm. "What kind of a question is that?"

For a fraction of a second she thought she had gone too far, that, driven by the words of the female agent, she had taken a wrong course of understanding and did a mistaken interpretation. But, his expression was not one of someone who was oblivious, rather one of someone who had been caught. His pupils were dilated and the air came out of his body in raged breaths.

She stepped closer to him until their bodies almost touched, her eyes never left his scared ones.

"Please, tell me the truth." She pleaded softly. "I know that you've turned down Pritch, that your heart is set in someone else. Tell me, am I that person?"

"It's not entirely true that I rejected her. I did make an advance towards her, but I couldn't carry it on fully." He whispered the words so close to her face that she could sense his warm breath caress her now overheated cheeks. "My heart wouldn't allow it."

"Why is that?" She insisted, the look in her eyes urging him.

He paused and took a long breath. "I have to know if you really wish for the truth."

"I do, Booth, please, don't hide anything from me, I'm your partner." And that last word came out somewhat accentuated. It now appeared to have grown into so much more. Beyond work and more than friends. After four long years the word _partner_ seemed to finally come to its complete definition.

He seemed to relax at her words of assurance and a new surge of courage erupted in his heart and fueled his next words.

"I do have feelings for you. I have had them for a long time. I see you more than just a partner. You are someone I can trust my life to, the person that stays locked in my mind and in my heart when things are going rough for me. You brought a warm feeling to my soul that I only feel when I'm with Parker. I feel enticed to everything that you are."

"Booth…"

His hands wrapped around her shoulders and brought her body a little closer to his. The warmth spread from the tip of his fingers and through the skin that it touched, even though it was covered by the fine fabric of her blouse. She repressed a shiver that came from the bottom of her spine and ran upwards in fury, which erupted in the base of her skull, leaving her struggling to hear her partner speak.

"Please, Bones, I don't want this to ruin our partnership. I've feared everyday that this very moment would happen, I didn't know how you would react to it and knowing that you are a strong, independent woman that can take care of herself, I thought that confessing my feelings to you would lead you further away from me, in an effort for you to control yourself in your own rational and detached ways."

"Stop." She exclaimed. "Just stop it right now." A frown formed in her face in contrast with the small smile stubbornly playing in her lips.

"I'm sorry…"

"Don't be, Booth." She smiled tenderly at him then. "I might not be able to express into words what my emotions are, but I can do this." She approached him, carefully, and locked her lips with his own, overcoming whatever barriers that words could never hope to. Their lips touched softly and, before she closed her eyes, she saw that his had a different glow on them. She smiled contently into their kiss and finally her eyelids closed, enjoying the new sensations that it bought.

It didn't last enough for her to taste the different flavors of his mouth and catalogue them in detail, but it was sufficient for all the memories of their time spent together to come flashing back across her mind's eye. All his smiles, the hugs and the times he feinted the law for her, crossed her mind as a reminder of the importance of that man in her life and, somehow, all those gestures coiled together at the moment their lips met and slipped apart as the contact broke, leaving the promise for more lingering in the air.

"Bones…" He breathed hard. Those warm puffs of air caressed her face as he leaned closer and rested his forehead against hers. They were close, like never before, so much that she could see the long cells in his eyes which formed rays of different brown hues. They were made in a gradient of sepia colors, so vibrant and bright looking at her, that it filled her with amazement.

"Don't say anything else, Booth; just invite me inside your house." She simply said not missing the bright smile that appeared in his features, a mirror for her own.

"Would you like to come in?" He questioned politely while disentangling one arm from around her body to open the door.

She didn't miss the soft touch of his hand in her lower back. The movement was warm, filled with tenderness. She knew that nothing would ever be the same between them, yet it would be no different.

"I'd love to." She replied with a smile in her face as she crossed the threshold.

**The End**


End file.
